6 Easy Ways on How To Make Your Linkedin Profile Standout

Here is your ultimate guide to take your LinkedIn profile strength to the next level. Follow these 6 easy tips and tricks and you can create a more and interesting profile.

If you’re looking for some LinkedIn profile tips, you’re most likely in one of these situations:

You’re not landing the clients, job, or employees you want.
Your profile lacks views or popularity.
You don’t know what to write for your LinkedIn profile
If you answered, “that’s me!” to any one of these above points, I completely understand!

I want to share with you my 15 best LinkedIn profile tips so you can:

• Find great work
• Make more money
• Get more profile views
• Build an incredible network

LinkedIn boasts over 660 million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. With that kind of reach, you can’t afford not to take your LinkedIn profile seriously.

1. Be A Strategic Linkedin User

Building a strong network is about making and maintaining connections. Connecting with someone after a networking event is just half the battle, after all. 

How do you maintain better LinkedIn connections? One word: Engage. 

Here are 2 things you should avoid, and how to use your likes to your advantage.

Don’t be a LinkedIn crawler. You know, those people who just scroll through their feed and aimlessly browse without liking anything. 

Instead, try this: Every time you go on LinkedIn, take a few moments to like a few recent posts in your newsfeed. Whenever you’re liking a post, you’re also showing your connection some appreciation!

Don’t treat your likes like gold. Unlike gold, likes are free. 

Instead, try this: My rule of thumb is, if the post I read provided just an ounce of value, I give it a like! But it’s important to be purposeful about this—don’t just go around liking any and all posts. 

Likes are the easiest way to produce rapport.

Look at the bigger picture. I used to be a serial judger, but liking creates deeper connections. It’s great conversation fodder next time you see them. If you liked an article they posted—even if the post wasn’t excellent—you then can talk about that article next time you see them. Bingo! Conversation starter and liker. 

2. Focus on the Top Sections

Recruiters are busy and so are most professionals. There are a lot of technical advantages to having a very full profile, but you can’t expect everyone who arrives at your page to read every word.

You have to hook them from the start. Include your most important skills, experiences, and qualities high up in your profile. This means your cover photo, profile picture, headline, summary, and recent experience.

So if you won a huge award or have a key certification, don’t wait until the “Accomplishments” or “Licenses & certifications” sections to mention them. Add them to one of your top sections—as high up as is appropriate. The same goes for your most important keywords. Don’t let your most marketable skill get buried in your “Skills & endorsements” section.

3. Attract Recruiters Like a Pro

From the 2017 Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report, below are the top three positive factors that impact a recruiter’s decision to move forward with a candidate.

In case you weren’t aware already, recruiters use LinkedIn to find, qualify, and engage with for open positions. I can’t confirm an actual statistic, but one study reported in 2016 84% of recruiters use LinkedIn to recruit while another study from March 2018 reported that 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates. I believe them both.

1. Examples of written or design work (65%)
2. Engagement in volunteering, mentoring, or non-profits (63%)
3. Mutual connections (35%)

So, if you want to be visible and desirable to recruiters as part (not all) of your job search plan, below are four things you can do to increase your chances.

4. Use Your Summary Wisely

Your summary or “About” section is where you can really show your personality and share your story, Hallow says. And it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Here’s how you might structure it:

• Introduce yourself. Who are you as a professional and what do you do? What value do you bring to the organizations you work for?
• Highlight your key skills, experiences, and achievements in paragraph form or a bulleted list.
• Talk about who you are outside of work. This is optional, but you never know which of your interests might resonate with a recruiter, future employer, or professional connection.
• Call the reader to action by asking them to connect with you to discuss growth marketing, contact you about job or speaking opportunities, or do whatever you’re currently looking to get from your LinkedIn profile.

Even if you follow this structure, there are infinite ways to write your summary. “The ‘About’ section is very personal,” Wasserman says. Use the first person, and don’t be afraid to talk about what really matters to you in your career.

5. Credibility In Telling Your Story

Credibility is essential to telling your story on LinkedIn. Because what’s a story if no one can back up its claims?

Enter the LinkedIn Recommendations section. A recommendation is how your community can validate your professional story by writing about their experience working with you.

Request recommendations from a diverse group of people you’ve collaborated with across different roles, and who can speak to your specific work experience, skills, and major achievements. 

When asking executives or senior leaders for a recommendation, consider writing a first draft of  the recommendation for them as a starting point and let them edit to fit their voice and tone. By giving them a starting point, you’ll help them narrow their focus on what you would like them to say and save them time.

6. Show Off Your Expertise or Best Work in the Features Section

Just below the “About” section is the “Featured” sections, which allows you to showcase media, links, and LinkedIn articles and posts at the top of your profile. Sharing the work or mentions that are most relevant to your personal brand and LinkedIn goals is a great opportunity to show your skills in action, Wasserman says.

If you have an online portfolio, the “Featured” section is a great, highly visible spot to link to it.

Summary: Your LinkedIn Tips To-Do List

Here is a quick to do list from this article that you can do with your LinkedIn profile strength right now:

• Be a strateguc Linkedin User
• Focus on the top sections
• Attract recruited like a pro
• Use your summary wisely
• Credibility in telling your story
• Show off your expertise or best work in the features section

If you want to learn more go and Book a Free Call Here!

5 Easy Ways on How To Make Your Linkedin Profile Standout

No matter what stage of the job-search process you’re in, you’ll always need a LinkedIn profile that stands out.

With more than 600 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is easily the largest professional network on the planet.  Your LinkedIn profile communicates who you are. It’s a way to tell your story, get heard, and be discovered.

But what makes a great profile? How do you break through the crowd to get noticed by recruiters, peers, and others who will connect you to the opportunities you want?  A compelling profile starts with better expressing the amazing individual you are: who you are and why you are unique. 

1. Speak To Your Target Audience

The first step is to define who your key audience is. Then craft a story focused on your contributions, your career journey, and the values that are important to you—all tailored to the right audience. For example, are your audience industry peers, customers, or executives? Think about how you’d tailor your content differently for each and customize. 

Use the headline (the domain immediately below your name at the top of your LinkedIn profile) as an opportunity to describe yourself.

Offer the reader a glimpse of your background and skills. Use the headline to bridge the gap and tell the reader where you currently are and where you want to go.

2. Write An Eye Catching Headline

By default, your current job title will show as your headline. That is not what you want. This heavily searched section should focus on what you do. State the work title you qualify for, do now, or want. Be specific using standard titles that are typically found on a job search site. You can highlight the field you are interested in, plus any specialties or key certifications that you possess.

3. Lean Into Your Story With A Strong “Summary”

Some of my clients ask me where they should invest their time when it comes to improving their LinkedIn profiles. My answer is always to focus on the “Summary” section. This is the first section everyone will see, and you want it to catch people’s attention. Use this space to make a bold first impression and draw others into your story.

Explain how you’re different by showcasing your key skills, and how you want to impact, contribute, and add value. Focus not only on what you do, but also why it matters and your “superpowers” (i.e. key strengths that differentiate you.) To really stand out, consider adding a personal mission statement or leadership purpose statement. This will help others get to know the compass that guides you in your life and career.

4. Turn on “Open to new job opportunities”

If you are open to new roles, your manager doesn’t have to know but recruiters can! When a relevant opportunity pops up recruiters can now get in touch with you.

Click on the ‘Me’ tab > click on ‘Add profile section’

Underneath the ‘Intro’ tab, it says ‘Looking for a new job’. Click here, and fill out your desired job titles and job location. You can also select whether you’re open to remote work, add your start dates and job types (full-time, contract or part-time).

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, you can now choose who sees that you’re open to hearing about new roles. You can either select ‘Just recruiters’ (so no one from your company will know you’re job searching) or you can select ‘All LinkedIn members’, which will add a green ‘Open for work’ badge on your profile picture.

5. Credibility In Telling Your Story

Credibility is essential to telling your story on LinkedIn. Because what’s a story if no one can back up its claims?

Enter the LinkedIn Recommendations section. A recommendation is how your community can validate your professional story by writing about their experience working with you.

Request recommendations from a diverse group of people you’ve collaborated with across different roles, and who can speak to your specific work experience, skills, and major achievements. 

When asking executives or senior leaders for a recommendation, consider writing a first draft of  the recommendation for them as a starting point and let them edit to fit their voice and tone. By giving them a starting point, you’ll help them narrow their focus on what you would like them to say and save them time.

If you want to learn more go and Book a Free Call Here!

5 Common Mistakes When Improving Your Linkedin Profile

On the hunt for a new job? Well, you’re probably going to need to work on your LinkedIn profile strengths. 

First impressions are critical to your success in building business relationships, which just happens to be one of the primary functions of LinkedIn.

Yet, even as it’s more important than ever to have a high-impact LinkedIn profile strengths, there are some common mistakes that one of my clients never realized that they are doing which is pretty easy to avoid.

I often get the question, “What are the Common Mistakes on How to avoid getting bad impressions from your Linkedin Profile Stenths?”

1. Boring and Undescriptive Headline

One of the gravest LinkedIn mistakes you can make is to create a boring or undescriptive LinkedIn headline. Your LinkedIn headline is the MOST critical part of your profile because, along with your name and profile photo, it is the first thing anyone will see when they find you in the search results or land on your profile.

Your headline will determine whether a viewer will choose to click on your profile or click away.

Your headline should also include keywords you would like to be found for. These could consist of your position or the services you offer. You can also include a client-focused statement that will capture a viewer’s attention and entice them to click to learn more.

To ensure your headline creates a great first impression and helps you stand out, check out this guide on creating the perfect LinkedIn headline.

2. Unprofessional Profile Picture

LinkedIn is not Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform. While it can be amusing to have a profile image featuring fun locations or your friends, family or pets, such a profile image is inappropriate on a professional platform such as LinkedIn.

To create the best first impression, add a professional profile picture, where you are recognizable, professionally dressed, smiling and looking straight at the camera against a neutral background.

3. Grammatical Mistakes and Typos

Surely, it’s no surprise that candidates demonstrating a strong grasp of the English language are more desirable. People assume they’ll be better written and verbal communicators and leaders on the job. Even with the spelling and grammar checks built into our word processors, it can be easy to make an error when putting together your LinkedIn profile, especially in the Summary or Experience section.

Proofread each section of your LinkedIn profile before you post it, and ask your friends to look it over as well. The worst way to make a first impression with recruiters or hiring managers is to have them find a simple mistake and doubt your job skills going forward.

4. Blank Summary or Current Experience

Your summary section is the perfect place for you to make a first great impression on the viewer. Leaving it blank will rob you of the opportunity to tell your readers about yourself, your expertise and your clientele. When writing your summary, speak to your audience directly, be it your ideal clients, strategic partners or employers.

If you don’t grab their attention, they will click away, and the opportunity to create a business relationship with them will be lost.

Your current experience should describe what you’re doing right now in your current position or in your business.

A compelling current work experience section should:

• describe the company you work for (or own),
• share the most inspiring information about the company (such as a USP and mission or vision statement),
• describe the products or services you offer, the benefits they provide, and the types of clients you serve.

5. Profile Is Written Like a Resume

Unless you are a job seeker, your Linkedin profile should not be written like a resume. This impersonal way of talking about yourself can turn off potential clients, partners or other people you’d like to connect with.

Write your profile in the first person, and speak directly to the people you want to connect with. Explain whom you help and how you help so the readers can imagine the benefits of receiving your service or using your product.

Avoid LinkedIn Mistakes that Damage Credibility

Everybody makes mistakes, but some errors, like the 10 LinkedIn mistakes discussed in this article, can cost you potential business opportunities and even damage your credibility within the business community.

LinkedIn is a professional network and can be much less forgiving than Facebook or Twitter. Familiarize yourself with the LinkedIn etiquette, and act accordingly, especially if you use (or hope to use) LinkedIn for professional purposes.

If you want to learn more go and Book a Free Call Here!

How to Improve your LinkedIn Profile Strength

It happens very often that we wonder “What’s the LinkedIn profile strength status after All-Star? What do I have to do to get it? How do I attain the next one?”

Well, I am here to explain it to you, my friend.

I will share a case with you from one of my clients. Erica needed to improve her LinkedIn profile and learn how to expose her current skills, education, and over 15 years of experience in Marketing. She asks me to help her and we worked on her LinkedIn profile. After that, she got focused on her career strategy by getting interviews quickly in the marketing field of her desires. Within the week, she had an interview with a hiring manager!

But What is a LinkedIn’s Profile Strength? This is LinkedIn’s way of showing you how “robust” or POWERFUL your profile is. The more CONTENT you add, the more the STRENGTH of your profile will increase.

LinkedIn has several ways to assess how well you are using some of the features available to maximize the opportunity to be found online via your LinkedIn Profile. One of these features is ranking your profile and how well you have filled in, or optimized, all of the elements of your LinkedIn Profile.

To view the Profile Strength meter:

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage (if on the desktop) or the photo of you on the top LH side of your phone screen.
2. Select View profile.
3. Below your top card information, move your cursor over the meter to see which steps you’ve completed. If you’re an ALL STAR – well done!

Step 1: Upload a professional-looking profile picture and background image

Having a quality profile picture is vital on Linkedin and many users who fail to have one end up being ignored. To make sure your profile picture fits properly, the picture should be square (250 x 250 pixels is the perfect dimension). Cropped pictures, dark pictures, or pictures that are blurry or have a busy background should be avoided. In addition, upload a background photo which is 1400 x 425 pixels. Your background photo should showcase the result of your product or service. For example, if you’re a career coach for men over 40, then show a successful and fulfilled man in his forties in a career environment.

Additional elements to add on a background image could be your business logo and website URL if you have any. The more customized your account is and the more visually attractive it is, the more likely you are to stand out from anyone else and is what makes a good Linkedin profile.

Step 2: Write a compelling headline

Your headline that appears below your name and profile picture should describe your main strengths and include keywords you wish to rank for. In my case we have: Graduate to Executive | Career Source| Expert Interview & Resume Writing | HRIS | HR Talent Development Consultant| Branding|Speaker

Step 3: Complete the summary section

When completing your summary, it should underline who you are and what you specialize in and explain your unique selling proposition in detail. The summary section allows you to write up to 2,000 words so make sure you take full advantage of this space to market yourself. In addition, remember to add a call-to-action inviting people to check your website, get in touch by email or endorse your skills.

Step 4: Describe your current position and add at least 2 past positions

By providing details about your current position and at least 2 past positions, will make your profile 12 times more likely to be found. If you don’t have at least 2 past positions, break down your different responsibilities and roles into separate positions.

Step 5: List your education

When filling the “education” section on Linkedin, if you didn’t go through higher education, you can simply list the courses or seminars you attended and any certificates you may have.

Step 6: List your top 10 skills

In terms of skills, Linkedin allows you to list a total of 50 skills. However, listing just 10 skills is enough as most people are unlikely to read all 50. Once you have listed your 10 most important skills for which you want to be known for, you can re-shuffle them in order of importance.

Step 7: Grow your connections

Finally, make sure you have a minimum of 50 connections if you want your profile strength to be “expert” or “all-star”. Start connecting with people by sending personalized connection requests or emailing your database inviting them to join you on Linkedin. Alternatively, you can promote your Linkedin profile by adding the link on your business cards and in your email signature.

Having a big Linkedin network is also what makes a good Linkedin profile.

Extra Step: Customize your Linkedin profile URL

Just like other social networks, your default Linkedin profile link contains random characters which read: https://www.linkedin.com/in/your-name-769a78246. To customize your Linkedin profile URL, go to “edit profile” and click on the settings tab next to your current URL.

Next, click on the edit tab next to your URL.

Is all this necessary?

Let me tell you that IT IS! Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn than someone with an incomplete profile. This means you will connect with more people and truly experience the benefits of LinkedIn.

Plus, I have found that complete profiles rank higher in LinkedIn’s search results. LinkedIn wants to ensure their search results are accurate and so it makes sense that they promote profiles that are filled out ahead of incomplete profiles.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post on the top 8 ways to improve your Linkedin profile strength! It’s never too late to work on yourself and your future. 

Don’t forget to share this with your friends and comment below if you found this useful or what other steps have you done to improve your LinkedIn.

If you want to learn more go and Book a Free Call Here!